Psalms 117-150

Suggestions:
1) Read the “tiny meditation” before and/or after you read the Bible chapter to help make a self-appllication of the scriptures read.
2) Want to use both your eye gate and ear gate in taking in the Word? Just click the “Read” chapter to get started.

There are so many things for which to praise the Lord! I may praise Him for His beauty, for His wisdom, for His power. I may praise Him for the abounding excellency of His universe. But the praise He most wants from my lips is praise of what I have experienced, His mercy, which is great toward me, and His truth, which has been shown to me. For this I will praise Him forever.

Every day is a day the Lord has made. Let me therefore rejoice and be glad in every day. This day is a new gift from God’s right hand. For me it has been fashioned, fresh in the divine laboratory. And shall I take it as a matter of course, or with no word of thanksgiving?

I have many possessions, but Thy law shall be my chief possession. It is the goodness of all my goods, the beauty of all lovely things, the power at the base of all my strength. As I am true to it, I am true to others, and to myself, and to Thee.

What shall I do, if I who love quietness am surrounded by lovers of turmoil? Or if my pursuit of wisdom is thwarted by their folly? If the contagion of their diseases is upon me, and if their clouds overshadow my tent? Ah, then let me know the Lord for a neighbor, and let me ever dwell in His house!

I lift up my eyes to the mountains, to the lordliest thing that God has made; but my help comes not from them. My help comes from no lordly thing, but from the Lord Himself, the Maker of all lordly things. He that upholdeth them will ever uphold me.

Many are the ends of the journeys of men, and many are the goals they have set up for themselves. Be the goal of my desires, the end of my journeys, but one, O my God! In all my seeking let me seek Thee, and in all my finding let me find nothing else.

Not always does the servant look to his master’s hand; but where else shall I look, O God, for the direction of my life? Thou canst see the way, however far before me. Thou canst protect the journey, however beset with foes. If I travel in Thy service, I shall know no fear; and if I travel in Thy service I must go Thy way.

Not so much that I am on the side of God as that God is on my side! Oh, glorious condescension, that the Lord of heaven and earth will be on the side of His creatures! And yet, being what He is, where else should He be? Where else could He be?

The mountains can be moved, but the Lord who made the mountains cannot be moved. He touches the earth and it trembles; the hills, and they quake. But He Himself never trembles, and they that rest in Him shall always be unmoved.

What matter how it was sown, whether in tears or with laughter, now that the harvest has come? What matter the winter’s snow and ice, and the delay of the spring, now that the sheaves fill my arms? It was mine to sow, and it was mine to wait. It is God’s to furnish the harvest, and His work is better than mine!

I have tried to build without the Lord, and lo! a tumbled pile of bricks upon the ground! I turned, and build with the Lord, and lo! The walls rise fair and firm, and the sky is their roof, and eternity is their foundation.

There is a boldness that befits a coward, and that is boldness in the presence of the Lord! There is a fear of which a hero may be proud, and that is the fear of the Lord! For that fear is the beginning of wisdom. Only a wise man will know that fear.

My back is furrowed with the blows of affliction. Long bleeding furrows are they, and the Lord has sowed in them the most fruitful seed! Out of my sorrows has sprung gladness of heart. My tears have brought me a harvest of joy!

Ever, through what I see, I am looking forth, as through a door, waiting to see something more. For what am I looking? Why am I not satisfied with what I see? Why is my soul ever on the watch? Because Thou hast not yet come. Thou who art the rest and joy of my soul. When Thou dost come, it will be as the morning to the watchman who has been watching all the night.

It is well for me to know what affairs are too great for me. It is well for me not to attempt a man’s part in matters where I am but a child. They only become men who are willing to be children. And the noblest men never lose the heart of a child.

Hardly am I one man till I am united with some other man! Hardly is my mind my own till it is exercised in another’s behalf, or my body till it is worn out for another. And hardly can I know the supreme companionship with the Most High till I know the lower comradeship with His creatures.

As Abraham was blessed in order that he might be a blessing, so let me bless the Lord, and receive blessings from His hand! There can be no blessing without reflection. Seeds may grow or die, but blessing must always bear fruit.

Am I worshipping silver and gold? Am I listening to things that cannot speak, and praying to things that cannot hear? Am I living for things at all, and not rather for the Creator of things, in whose power they all lie, to give or to withhold?

The mercies that I have from the Lord endure forever. How I need to have the truth repeated, and reiterated, and pressed upon my heedless mind! The mercy of the Lord endureth forever! Though things decay, though friends pass away, though fortune fades and beauty vanishes, and health and even life are gone, yet the mercy of the Lord endureth—forever!

Am I in Babylon? Yes, often and often! When I forget Zion, I am in Babylon, but not when I remember Zion. When I weep over the fate of Jerusalem, I am not in Babylon; but I am in Babylon when the fate of Christ’s Kingdom brings no tears nor awakens any fears.

In the day that I call, God answers me. Not the next day or the next week, but in that same day. Not always does the answer come such as I had expected or at the moment wish, but it always comes. For God loves to be petitioned, and He loves to answer petitions. Shall He not do what He loves to do?

Does the thought of God as my Overseer trouble me? Do I seek to hide from Him to run away from Him? Do I resent His absolute knowledge of me? Let me commit no longer such useless folly. Let me know that there is no safety for me anywhere except in the knowledge of God; and let me be sure that within the refuge of that knowledge it is perfect love.

I must not be blind to my foes. I must not fall into the dangers that surround me. They rear their heads against me. I make light of them, but they are not light. I build a wall against them, but they overtop any wall. God is the only wall they cannot pass.

Perhaps my greatest folly is to be angry when I am reproved by wise men. No better blessing could come into my life, except the driving away of the faults that call for their reproof. It is not easy for them to reprove me. They would far rather not do it, and keep my pleasure in them. Ah, let them still have my love, and let it be doubled toward them!

I dwell in dark places, I who am the child of the Light. As those that have been long dead, I live in my tomb. It is a tomb I have made for myself, and no man could make it for me. Yes, and no man can release me from it. Stand by the door of my tomb, O Christ, and bid me come forth!

I have sung the old song so long, the heavens must be tired of it! I will learn a new song. I will discover new mercies, there are so many of them to discover! I will see new beauties in my Lord. I will anticipate new joys in heaven. I will find new delights upon earth. I will have new communion with God. And from it all a new song must burst forth.

The Lord made me with desires. It is by my wants that I grow. It is by my wants that I have enjoyment. Without desire I should be a stick or a stone. The Lord is on the side of all just desires. He opens His hand and grants them freely, because He has opened His hand and inspired them. Why should I fear to present my desires to Him?

I have but one hope. I do not hope in the world or the ordering of it. I do not hope in myself or my powers. I do not hope in my friends, however loving. I do not hope in heaven, however alluring. I do not hope in justice, or in truth, or in any other abstraction. My hope is in the Lord my God, the Creator of the world, the Ruler of heaven, the Arbiter of justice, and the Fount of truth!

Am I among those whom the Lord upholds, or those whom He casts down to the ground? Am I downcast or exultant? Is my head held high in happiness, or bent in gloom? Does darkness or light fill my eyeballs? By its fruits I shall know it, this upholding from the Lord!

How am I joining the universal praise of nature? The morning stars sing together. The grass smiles it to the trees, and the trees to the sky. The birds carol it, and the wind trumpets it, and the sea murmurs its undertone. Am I alone silent amid this singing host?

How shall the praise of the Lord be a sword in my hand? It shall drive out, as an armed warrior, my doubts and gloom, and the doubts and gloom of those that hear me. It shall smite fear to the earth, and all worries. It shall slay despair. It shall cleave a way through the foes that most persistently oppose my progress, the spiritual wickedness in high places!

How can I ever praise the Lord according to His excellent greatness? My praise is so feeble, and His greatness is so majestic! Ah, for this, as for all duties and delights, His is the power at my command. He will give me words, even for the praise of Himself.